Cape Town - Criminals can easily buy guns and ammunition because police do not have the legally required systems to keep track of who purchases them, industry insiders said.
“One of the requirements of the Firearms Control Act is that all sales of ammunition must be electronically recorded for police to pick up any unusual patterns.
“But this electronic connectivity has never been implemented,” according to Martin Hood, an attorney specialising in firearms legislation.
Firearms dealers were meant to record all transactions and pass this on to police, but he said police did not have the systems in place to receive this information.
Gun control by police around the country has been an ongoing problem for years. Only last month Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu described the Central Firearms Registry in Pretoria as “horrendous” and “dysfunctional and in constant decay”.
She said amendments were planned for the Firearms Control Act but that the cabinet was worried the registry may not be ready to implement the proposed changes.
The registry, which has been rocked by allegations of corruption, is meant to be the police hub where firearm and ammunition transactions are recorded.
Other gun control problems have been highlighted by arrests made at the registry and flare ups in gang violence around Cape Town and allegations that police officers illegally created firearm licences for gangsters now form the basis of a court case which is expected to resume in a few days.
This week Hood said firearms dealers were meant to keep records of who bought guns and ammunition and this information was meant to be sent electronically to the police.
“But the police do not have the capability of receiving this information. The act requires a massive amount of information to be kept by dealers.
“They’re obligated to keep track of firearm sales and send this information to police on a monthly basis, but police don’t have the manpower to receive it,” he said.
Hood said a self-defence firearms licence holder was allowed to buy up to 200 rounds of ammunition at a dealership.
The licence holder was not allowed to own more than 200 rounds per calibre of firearm at a time. But because of poor monitoring of purchases, Hood said a licence holder could potentially buy at least 200 rounds of ammunition a day.
This meant a licence holder could potentially get hold of 6 000 rounds of ammunition in 30 days, if they limited themselves to going to a single shop each day.
A city firearms dealer said individual dealers kept records of transactions, but this information was generally not shared.
In a letter to the Civilian Secretariat of Police dated about three weeks ago, the Confederation of Hunters Associations of SA (Chasa) made submission for amendments to the Firearms Control Act and also focused on the issue of electronic connectivity.
The association said it was common cause the Central Firearms Registry was dysfunctional. It said electronic connectivity, the link between gun dealers and the registry, was meant to allow for a specific firearm to be located at any time and to control the sale of guns and ammunition.
“Ten years after implementation of the act, electronic connectivity is non-existent. The Central Firearms Registry and designated firearm officers still rely on inaccurate, manually generated computer printouts which in no way match up with dealer records and firearms in dealer’s possession,” Chasa’s letter said.
In a speech at the National Firearms Summit last month, Sotyu said she had gone to inspect the Central Firearms Registry.
“Infrastructure is falling apart with its outdated IT systems, there is a high vacancy rate, a lot of personnel were fired due to corruption, which is a good thing, but they were not replaced, and, there is a definite lack of command and control,” she said.
General Jeremy Vearey, who heads the province’s police operation focused on gangsterism, recently pointed out that gangsters were getting hold of dedicated sports firearm licences, which allowed them to buy as much ammunition as they liked.
In June last year, three police officers from the Central Firearm Registry, Priscilla Mangyani, Billy April and Mary Cartwright, were arrested as part of the investigation.
They are expected in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court in a few days with alleged gang kingpin Ralph Stanfield.
Weekend Argus